Afflict - to cause suffering or unhappiness (something a disease does)
Inflict - to force pain or suffering (like if you smack someone)
(Both cause pain)
Allude - to refer to something in an indirect manner
Elude - to evade
Alone - no other person is with you
Lonely - you are alone, and sad as a result
Amicable - a friendliness or goodwill between people or groups
Amiable - friendly disposition
Arise - happen or occur
Rise - to go up
Assent - refers to agreement
Ascent - a climb
Aver - to affirm
Avow - to openly declare
Correlation - a relationship
Corollary - more like a consequence
Disassemble - to take something apart
Dissemble - to hide your true self
Discreet - under the radar, careful
Discrete - individual or detached
Disinterested - unbiased; out of the loop
Uninterested - don't give a hoot; bored
Disperse - to scatter
Disburse - to pay
Eminent - famous
Imminent - refers to something about to happen
Immanent - inherent
Exalt - to glorify or elevate something
Exult - to rejoice
Extant - still here
Extent - the range of something
Faze - to disturb, bother, or embarrass
Phase - a stage or step
Fictional - literary
Fictive - specific
Fictitious - just plain fake
Imply - to hint at something
Infer - to make an educated guess
Ingenious - smart and clever
Ingenuous - innocent and naive
Insidious - something that lies in wait to get you
Invidious - something offensive or defamatory
Loath - unwilling or reluctant
Loathe - to hate
Morbid - describes something gruesome
Moribund - the act of dying
Paradox - a logical puzzle that seems to contradict itself
Oxymoron - a figure of speech—words that seem to cancel each other out (e.g., instant classic)
Parameter - a limit that affects how something can be done
Perimeter - the outline of a physical area
Practical - sensible
Practicable - possible
Pragmatic - you're practical
Dogmatic - you follow the rules
Premiere - the first public performance of something
Premier - the very best
Prescribe - to recommend
Proscribe - to forbid
Rebut - to try to prove something isn’t true
Refute - to actually prove it isn’t
Reluctant - resisting or unwilling
Reticent - quiet, restrained, or unwilling to communicate
Saw a funny Facebook meme and rambled about it in a post, so came here to ramble about the same thing in depth: this right here is one of the reasons why these kinds of overly poetic descriptions are a sign of young/immature writing, but it goes far beyond getting the "wrong color." As a writer, you don't want to paint a picture; you want to paint a feeling. Your reader's brain will paint the best picture from that. Too many details, and their brain gets too busy figuring out what the room looks like to fully experience what the room feels like.
Amateur: He walked into his bedroom, polished shoes stepping on the crimson carpet as his eyes wandered over the dark brown, solid oak furniture and the burnt orange walls. Twenty feet across from him, a fire blazed in the fireplace, shades of gold and vermilion dancing behind the black, wrought-iron guard. On the wall above, pictures of family going back generations were framed in gold, and on the wall to his left, miniature chandeliers dangling over his dresser like lamps. He looked at his bed, red like the carpet but darker in shade and adorned with bronze and gold intricacies that patterned a web over its plush surface. He was so happy to be home, where things were familiar, and he walked to his bed with a faint smile.
Expert: Tired feet struck the crimson carpet and stopped, equally tired eyes wandering over the familiar shades of earth and sunset that painted the landscape of his bedroom. Across the chamber blazed a fire, warm and welcoming, which so starkly contrasted the family portraits hanging above and displaying the faces of people he barely knew. He knew the fire, though; the crackling and popping cadence that never failed to lull him to sleep when the people in the portraits couldn't even do that much. Sleep, which he desperately wanted and needed, so he turned toward the bed, spread with a comforter that matched the carpet almost perfectly, ornate in design and—most importantly by far—covering a mattress so soft and deep that he often lost consciousness the instant he fell into its warm comfort and left the world's oh-so-cold discomfort behind. He had gone so long without that. Still smiling, practically salivating, he moved toward the bed, desperate to feel like he was finally home again.
In the amateur example, you can better see the room as the author sees it—what it looks like as a room. In the expert example, you can better see the room as the CHARACTER sees it—what it FEELS like as THEIR room. And that is so, so much more important when you're trying to bring your reader not into your world, but into your character's world.
Your definition of an 'earthy, homey room' can be different from that of your readers. In the second example, you leave out the fact you see chandeliers on the wall or golden frames around the portraits when you picture it in your own head; but that's okay, because the readers know the character feels warm and safe and at home. Maybe your reader thinks an antique lamp sitting on the dresser better fits in this 'posh but warm' scenario. Maybe they think candles or oil lamps. Maybe they think a dim room that isn't lit up in any significant way by anything other than the fire.
All of those are fine, and they don't impact the story. What does impact the story, however, is if you start talking about the chandeliers, and your reader has to go, "Oh, I assumed—okay, I can see that. Chandeliers. Got it." It happens in a split second, and your reader doesn't even know they're doing it, but their brain is taking that moment to recalculate its understanding of the scene. It breaks the immersion, it breaks the flow; it's the equivalent of pressing pause during a movie so you can take in the insignificant details of the set and then hitting play and trying to get back into the emotion you were feeling before you hit pause.
Concepts over colors. Feelings over facts. Less is more.
Returning to the basics isn’t a step back; it’s what keeps good writing from going hollow. A new post is up, and we’re starting the month fresh. Come read and maybe try the ten-minute exercise. 🖊️ #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
honestly? it's 100% ok to use "said" when writing. don't let anyone tell you otherwise! the greatest writers out there used "said" or "asked" after their dialogue. it's there for a reason - use it.
i've been writing for 21 years now. i hope this helps someone if only a little.
(Disclaimer: I saw a post similar to this before, but I can’t find it, so here’s my version of it.)
Dialogue grammar in the English language is ridiculously complex, and can easily be messed up if you aren’t paying attention or are unfamiliar with how dialogue is structured. So, here’s a simple guide. Note that a lot more complex dialogue structure has not been included. Pay attention to punctuation.
“This is an incomplete sentence,” they say, “that continues after the dialogue tag.”
e.g. “Just because you think you’re so cute and pretty,” she sneered, “doesn’t mean that you own this place.”
“This is a complete sentence.” There is an action. “This is a new sentence.”
e.g. “I don’t care.” He smiled. “I don’t care at all.”
“This is a complete sentence,” and this is the relevant dialogue tag. “This is a new sentence.”
e.g. “The sky is blue,” she gasped in wonder. “I never knew that.”
They do an action before they speak. “This is the dialogue.”
e.g. He blinked. “Why are you like this?”
They speak, “This is the dialogue.”
e.g. They whisper, “I love you.”
Dialogue paragraphing will be discussed in another post.
could we please get some tips and tricks for writing NSFW work?? you write it like its nothing! im too shy to do it!!
oddly enough, smut is one of the easiest things for me to write lol. but ye, here’s a handful of basic and easy stuff you can follow for when you write!
everythings under the cut as this is NSFW! :) There’s a lot of writing here btw so sorry if it’s too long!!
SO let’s start with the main thing you need to remember: it’s just sex! Writing smut is a lot easier to do than you may think, even if you’re inexperienced irl, or you’re a virgin. That’s fine! A lot of the all-time bestsellers have been erotic writing, so there's no shame in writing about what a lot of us naturally enjoy.
Remember that just like all genres, your first fics are going to be messy. You’re new here, it’s gonna take time. I recommend asking for critiques in your note section and hope that someone is kind enough to point out any flaws/room for improvement. Of course, if you disagree with their critique, then just thank them anyway and move on. It’s YOUR writing after all, not theirs!
The best way to break everything down is to focus on our five senses: see, hear, touch, smell, taste. They play a BIG role during sex, and focusing on them during your writing is going to make it a lot easier to write.
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SEE
The first thing you'll want to include is what your characters actually look like. Feel free to mention all their lumps and bumps, their curves and/or visible bones, how their skin colour might change in different areas of their body, etc.
What does person A enjoy the most visually about person B?
Do they have a really nice scar that person A likes to trail over with their fingers or tongue?
Do they have a belly that they might be self-conscious about? What can person A do to help calm their insecurities?
Do they have really cute pink skin on their genitals? like the tip of their penis or the inner part of their vagina?
Do they have really long hair that they always take a second to put up before getting it on?
Do they have freckles all over their body?
Do they shape their pubes in a really funky pattern?
You can easily write a nice chunk of writing based on what is visible. For example: 'Person A adored Person B, and oddly enough, it was for all the things that Person B was self-conscious about: The curves of their stomach and the complimentary stretch marks, the freckles that were sprinkled over their shoulders and down their arms, and the scar they had on their hip from the accident that caused them to meet.’
You'll also want to include their reactions! Sex can turn you into a mushy, panting, moaning mess, so make sure to let the reader know how your characters are reacting.
The most sensitive areas of your body are the neck, earlobes, bum, vagina/clit, the penis as a whole, balls, g-spot, prostate, and nipples.
Please remember that not everybody likes all these areas being touched, but most do! But what areas specifically does your character like the most?
Do they enjoy a classic blowjob? Do they prefer them to be sloppy?
Do they love having their clit played with? Especially using tongue?
Do they love their nipples being played with? Maybe including some toys?
Does kissing their neck always get them in the mood? Do they enjoy being kissed there the most?
Again, let's write another description based on those things. For example: '
Person A knows exactly what Person B likes. It's easy to turn them into a moaning mess, and all they needed to do was go between their legs. They'd have them calling out their name within seconds just from the way they ran their tongue up along the veins on their penis, followed by swirling their tongue around the tip before they finally bob their head down their shaft.'
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HEAR
There are 4 things to think about when writing about hearing:
What's being said (dirty talking, moaning names.)
What noises they're making (moans, grunts, panting, sighing.)
What sounds are echoing around the room (the sound of skin against skin, the creaking of the bed.)
What can be heard around the setting (the birds chirping outside, strangers outside talking, maybe another couple are at it in the other room.)
Let's write an example that covers all 4 of those things: '
Either the passers-by outside chose to ignore Person A and Person B going at it, or they weren't as loud as they thought they were. And my god, they were loud. Despite the music blaring out the speaker in attempts to cover up their noisy morning sex, the noises they were making were much louder. The sounds of skin slapping against skin, and the overloud moaning of each other's names echoed down the hall. How they hadn't had a noise complaint yet was a miracle.’
Now, writing dirty conversations can be cringe, I know, but I LOVE it when I find them in other people's work.
Is Person A instructing Person B what to do?
Is Person A using pet names/nicknames on Person B?
Does Person A dirty talk to Person B cause they know how flustered it makes them?
Does Person A speak more than one language? Do they know a few phrases in another language that turns Person B into mush?
Is this a romantic setting where Person A talking about how much they love and adore Person B?
Is this more of a kinky setting where Person A is bossing Person B about?
If you're unsure of how to write it, I'd recommend checking other people's work! For some writers, writing dirty dialog comes easy, and you can pick up a lot of good phrases from other people's work. PLEASE (obviously) don't copy but be inspired and follow their flow.
If you are after more kinky dialog then porn is a good place to pick this up. Porn is very fake, yes, but some of the dirty talk they use is a good example of what people say during a real setting. Obviously, only do this if you're comfortable with it.
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TOUCH
Ah, touch. Sex is heavily based on touching each other, obviously, which is why it's a key factor during writing.
Your body does a LOT of cool stuff when reacting to being touched, such as:
Sweating
Blushing
Getting goosebumps/chills
Trembling/Shaking/Twitching
Contracting
Blood vessels may enlarge
Eyes go hazy
Nipples may become erect
Your muscles tense up
Some people may squirt
Skin may flare up when a person's beard rubs over it.
Some people, depending on what the sex is like, may go into what I call 'sex mode.' This is when they become so engulfed in the sex that they kinda lose themselves. This tends to happen during really good sex!
Their muscles will tense and shake without them being able to control it, they may be flustered all over their body, their cock may be throbbing for release, their vagina walls may contract without them being able to control it, their eyes may gloss over and have a hazy appearance, etc.
Lets write a bit of description based on touching: '
Person A loved the little goosebumps that appeared all over Person B's body whenever they touched them in the right areas. They loved the way their cock twitched inside of them when their orgasm was soon approaching, or the way their mouth remained parted and their eyes glossed over. But the thing Person A loved the most was when their orgasm hit; to see their partner tremble from their touches was delicious, and even more delicious knowing that Person A turned them into this mushy mess.’
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SMELL
To be blunt, sex is stanky! Sex has a specific smell to it, and so does each individual person's body parts. Hygiene plays a big role here, as if a person is clean then they're going to smell a lot nicer, especially down there.
Nobody wants to read/write about a smelly character, it's off-putting, so if your character is naturally smelly then maybe have them go at it in a clean setting? Such as a spa, pool, river, lake, bath, etc.
Trying to describe the smell of someone's genitals is really hard, so don't be worried about skipping it. I personally always do, but you can always describe the smell of the room instead.
Is this a candlelit setting? What scent are the candles?
Are they in the bath? What does the bubble bath smell like?
Is there a fireplace in the room? Does the room smell slightly of smoke and warmth?
Is there incense burning? What scent is it? Is it heavy or thin in the air?
Are they using lube? What does it smell/taste/feel like?
Example time: '
The smell of general sex had been drowned out by their romantic setting. Person A had surprised Person B with a warm, candlelit bath for when they got home. The candles smelt of warm vanilla, and the bubble bath was honey-scented; a romantic combo that Person B loved!’
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TASTE
Yummy! Or maybe not yummy? The taste of another person's genitals all comes down to two things: diet, and hygiene. Just like smell, a lot of people don't like to read/write about a smelly character, and if your character is smelly, then they're going to taste gross too.
Everybody is different, and all genitals taste different, so if you want to include how your character tastes then you may need to do your own research in this area!
However, lube is a commonly used item and can play a big factor in taste. A lot of lube is scented and designed for eating, and flavours include Chocolate, Strawberry, Cherry, Orange, Watermelon, Mint, etc.
Some lube is designed to tingle, and a person may enjoy that sensation on their genitals. You may want to include that in your writing. For example: '
Person A got out the lube, a strawberry scented tingle lube. After placing a few pumps on their fingers, they massaged it onto Person B's genitals, loving the way they reacted to the tingle sensation it had. And when Person A went down on them, they enjoyed their natural taste, along with the strawberry flavour.'
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OTHER NOTES
Remember that sex isn't porn. Porn is very staged and forced, despite it being enjoyable for some people to consume.
Sex includes a handful of things, like:
Accidentally getting your hair stuck under another person's body part.
Giggling, lots of laughter! Is their dick not sliding in because there's too much lube on it? And it's now just a slippery mess? That's funny!
Farting :O and queefing! :O
Lazy sex!
Falling asleep during sex, especially when you're having drunk sex.
Accidentally being caught.
Receiving a noise complaint or an angry neighbour banging on the door.
Accidents happen! Maybe you got cum in your hair or on your clothes? Oops.
Deciding not to continue having sex and your partner understanding and respecting that!
Try a new kink? Did it work out? Was it a little weird?
Roleplay? Dressing up? Oooh la la!
PLEASE also remember to tag your work properly! Tag all kinks included, even the stuff that you may not think are kinks/need tagging. You'll want your tags to basically be a little spoiler section for your fic, as you want to ensure your readers can check through them to see if there's anything in there that they don't enjoy, or may set off a trigger.
Also, remember to use paragraph spacing! Paragraphs are usually 2-6 lines. You need regular paragraph spacing to ensure your work is easy to read. A lot of people may have something (such as dyslexia) in place that prevents them from reading big chunks of text, so try and ensure you're catering to a wide audience.
